The All Things Political Topic - In politics stupidity is not a handicap

[LadyCrimson]

On 4/3/2025 at 11:33 AM, Lexx said:

Maybe that bullet hitting would have been the better outcome after all.

He could still have a stroke or something.

What a joke and a ****show.

[Gorgon]

I'm reading that the likelihood of Trumps chart originating from a chatbot is very high. That's why the tariff on penguins. If you are smart you don't question the process.  Trump is extremely vain and needs to be perceived as 'high IQ'.  The cabinet all know this, so they all say nothing.

 

[rjshae]

15 hours ago, Gorgon said:

I'm reading that the likelihood of Trumps chart originating from a chatbot is very high. That's why the tariff on penguins. If you are smart you don't question the process.  Trump is extremely vain and needs to be perceived as 'high IQ'.  The cabinet all know this, so they all say nothing.

Yep, well it's all pure economic Folly, but there's nobody left to tell the emperor he has no clothes.

[Malcador]

"The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!

Donald Trump Truth Social 04/07/25 08:59 AM"

Sound mind

[rjshae]

Quote

"I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something," Trump said.

Well, to stretch the analogy a little further, there's a reason why Doctors scientifically prescribe medicines. Too much can often kill you, or at least leaving you feeling much less well off. I'd feel a lot better if this economic "medicine" was being prescribed by somebody who actually knew what they were doing. As it is, we have a political group that seems wildly divorced from reality implementing these measures. It's folly.

[Zoraptor]

Trump making comparisons to medicine would be a lot more effective if he hadn't made those 'interesting' recommendations during covid.

Tariffs are to international trade as horse dewormer bleach was to covid.

[Malcador]

He's on right now talking a lot of bull**** about how everyone is robbing the US, or how tariffs made the US great before 1913.  Or how the EU's non trade barriers like safety are crap. 

Apparently people believe the trade deficit caused the national debt, too..

And because the US doesn't look like an authoritarian state :

https://newrepublic.com/post/193674/trump-military-parade-birthday

 

[majestic]

Cut the man some slack y'all, will you, he's a stable genius who saw that trade and economic relations no longer guarantee peace when Putin's Russia invaded the Ukraine and how COVID affected global supply chains. He's also seen how little materiel the West can really produce when needed, and rightly attempts to bring back manufacturing to the US. In case of an all out war against the Chinese, the industrial base and all the resources need to be at home to win a protracted war of attrition.

Which is actually be a sensible position to have, and the Biden administration had that on the agenda, at least in some ways. It's just that the US has an deranged idiot at the helm who surrounded himself with lickspittles and yes-men, and now nobody's left to tell him that the emperor is naked. Trying to make sure that any eventualities in a potential conflict with China are planned for is a good thing. Alienating all your allies and trade partners in a block of equal economic and purchasing power or on those who whold a monopoly in certain goods is not. Taiwan, IIRC, as already stated that they are not going to react to the tariffs. Sitting on a de-facto monopoly, they can afford to. What are the US companies going to do, stop buying from TSMC?

Now, if only there'd been some incentives act aimed at breaking that monopoly. Can't quite put my finger on it. Must be something that the libtards wasted money on.  

Just because Trump thinks this should have been done decades ago, does not mean it will work now. The world's a much different place, and while the United States is still a large chunk of the global trading volume and GDP, it is no longer as relevant or consequential as they used to be. That could backfire very hard, very quickly. Plus it just proves that the word of the president of the United States is worth nothing, and no treaty with the US is worth the paper it is written on.

Which has always been the case in some ways (ask the Kurds), but never like this, and never that much and directly against the inner circle. I mean they even pissed off the otherwise nice Canadians, and that takes some doing.

[Gorgon]

Any guesses who's gonna head up the Panican party ?

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

That could backfire very hard, very quickly.

I'm not sure it even needs the equivocation of 'could' in this case- difficult to think of any circumstance in which it won't, and in some ways it already has with the share volatility and drop in confidence etc.

And it's only been ten weeks(?) since he was inaugurated.

Trump clearly has some sort of bullet point/ white board type plan of what he wants to do, but a lot of it is mutually exclusive if you take the obvious consequences into account- the equally obvious problem being, as below, he isn't taking those obvious consequences into account. And is picking fights with everyone, simultaneously. Do that and you better be absolutely sure you really are the Big Dog who no one can live without, for sure.

While not directly tariff related, Trump's made Denmark look utterly moronic for buying F-35s rather than a Euro alternative. The biggest threat to Denmark's territorial integrity can now turn off their biggest defensive asset, whenever they want. Can't really get bigger motivation for Europe to pull finger on a Eurofighter 2030 type project, so at the same time as Trump is demanding greater defence spending he's giving very good reason for avoiding doing so on US equipment and motivation to create competitors to near US monopolies (see also Mastercard/ VISA etc).

It's basically an enhanced Madman Doctrine, and the trouble with that is that if you give enough people enough motivation you don't end up with people paying you to go and bother someone else for a bit, you end up in a room with mattresses for walls.

Edited Monday at 10:29 PM by Zoraptor

[Malcador]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/04/cea-chairman-steve-miran-hudson-institute-event-remarks/

 

• First, other countries can accept tariffs on their exports to the United States without retaliation, providing revenue to the U.S. Treasury to finance public goods provision.  Critically, retaliation will exacerbate rather than improve the distribution of burdens and make it even more difficult for us to finance global public goods.
• Second, they can stop unfair and harmful trading practices by opening their markets and buying more from America;
• Third, they can boost defense spending and procurement from the U.S., buying more U.S.-made goods, and taking strain off our servicemembers and creating jobs here;
• Fourth, they can invest in and install factories in America.  They won’t face tariffs if they make their stuff in this country;
• Fifth, they could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods.

[bugarup]

2 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/04/cea-chairman-steve-miran-hudson-institute-event-remarks/

 

• First, other countries can accept tariffs on their exports to the United States without retaliation, providing revenue to the U.S. Treasury to finance public goods provision.  Critically, retaliation will exacerbate rather than improve the distribution of burdens and make it even more difficult for us to finance global public goods.
• Second, they can stop unfair and harmful trading practices by opening their markets and buying more from America;
• Third, they can boost defense spending and procurement from the U.S., buying more U.S.-made goods, and taking strain off our servicemembers and creating jobs here;
• Fourth, they can invest in and install factories in America.  They won’t face tariffs if they make their stuff in this country;
• Fifth, they could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods.

[uuuhhii]

5 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/04/cea-chairman-steve-miran-hudson-institute-event-remarks/

 

• First, other countries can accept tariffs on their exports to the United States without retaliation, providing revenue to the U.S. Treasury to finance public goods provision.  Critically, retaliation will exacerbate rather than improve the distribution of burdens and make it even more difficult for us to finance global public goods.
• Second, they can stop unfair and harmful trading practices by opening their markets and buying more from America;
• Third, they can boost defense spending and procurement from the U.S., buying more U.S.-made goods, and taking strain off our servicemembers and creating jobs here;
• Fourth, they can invest in and install factories in America.  They won’t face tariffs if they make their stuff in this country;
• Fifth, they could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods.

 

how can onion compete with this

[majestic]

12 hours ago, Gorgon said:

Any guesses who's gonna head up the Panican party ?

Elon Musk, seeing how he already suggested a zero tariff policy between the US and EU.  

[Malcador]

And a pause on tariffs

 

 

[bugarup]

Except for China, which got hit with 125%, so it's 25% discount if they invade Taiwan

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

And a pause on tariffs

So, I suppose Trump is actually the head of the PANICAN party?

[LadyCrimson]

Maybe Trump is using the Presidency to pad out his stock investments. eg, insider trading.
---joking. Although it wouldn't surprise me if discussion YT channels start flogging that horse.

Listening to his rambling during that live session of him signing stuff in the oval office, he sounds like me having a bad brain fog day trying to explain how a dishwasher works and it takes me 20 minutes of mumbling.